 Preview By: Matt Flanagan |
Developer: | BEC |
| Publisher: | Namco Bandai | |
| Genre: | Action | |
| ESRB: | Teen | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | HDTV (480p, 720p, 1080i) | |
| Estimated Release: | 11/17/2006 |
There have been countless Gundam games released over the years, and sadly many of them just haven’t been good enough to stand out from the crowd. When I first saw the E3 trailer of for Crossfire I was sure that this game would break away from the “its just somebody milking a popular anime by making a game” rule that anime games have been generally following for a while, but after seeing the game I’m not so sure. The game looks good, but it's strayed from its "guaranteed must-have" status in my eyes.
Crossfire is, predictably, a Mech Combat game. No surprises there. The game does offer a really nice feature in that it lets you choose which side you fight for, which fortunately isn’t limited to a simple “good vs evil” thing. Instead it lets you pick between the Earth Feferal Forces and the Principality of Zeon, and both sides can be considered "right" in their struggle. In the end though, you still fight mechs. There's not much new here, but as long as the old stuff is done right, the game will be good.
The graphics are nice to look at, but compared to the game's E3 trailer they aren’t really fantastic, which means that purists will be disappointed that the mechs in the game don’t look enough like the mechs from the anime, and people who fell in love with the realistic look from the trailer will be disappointed that the graphics dont quite measure up to other PS3 games. The fact that the graphics aren't going to be overly stressful on the PS3's hardware also means there's no excuse for the lag that pops up in the game's demos playable at retail now. We can hope that problem will be sorted out by launch, but its not likely at this late stage.
A really interesting and cool feature is the region-specific damage, meaning instead of just flashing and losing health your mech will actually lose parts of its body and lose fighting skills accordingly (less appendages for you to beat on people with). Melee weapons make for interesting combat, and the variety in mission types should keep the game fresh and interesting. Unfortunately, the amount of stuff that some missions require you to do is going to seriously frustrate casual players. On the other hand, people willing to stick with the game will find it rewarding to finally beat those longer levels.
From what they’ve shown us so far of the game, it looks like it’s going to use the PS3s horsepower for more than just making the same old thing look better. I don’t really think it’s going to be able to rid itself of that “cash-in” feel that the Gundam franchise has developed over the years, and it's definitely not on the top of the "must get" list when it comes to the PS3 launch titles you should buy. But Mech fans, especially the ones who are into Gundam, should definitely keep an eye on this one.
Posted: 2006-11-16 18:25:05 PST